


All the Broken Plans

by DarkJediQueen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brief suicidal thoughts, Character Bashing, Child Abuse, M/M, Pre-Slash, Sentinel & Guides are Known
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 06:57:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18191261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkJediQueen/pseuds/DarkJediQueen
Summary: Draco Malfoy's life changed when he came online as a Guide when he was seven. The first Malfoy to ever come online in history. His life changed again when it was storming the worst it had ever stormed. He was alone in his room when a wet and ragged wolf came running into his room. His Sentinel needed him.Harry Potter came online as a Sentinel the summer that he was to turn eleven. It was the worst storm in Harry's memory, and his aunt made him stay outside in it. Harry was cowering in the corner of the yard as protected as he could get as he sobbed from the loud noises and the pain from the rain on his skin. He looked at the wolf that appeared in front of him and Harry begged him for help.





	All the Broken Plans

**Author's Note:**

> **Year** : 1991 (Book 1)  
>  **Spoilers** : Up Through Whole Book Series  
>  **Notes** : Characters are underage, and no intimate contact besides sleeping in the same bed is going to happen.  
>  **Beta** : Grammarly

# July 1, 1991

Harry Potter heard the first crack of lightning, and he whimpered. He looked at the door that led into the house and debated actually going inside. His aunt might yell and scream at him, but there was every bit of a chance that she would get very upset and throw him back into the cupboard where Harry would be safer from the sounds of the storm. For weeks everything had been bothering him. His aunt had been making him shower, a cold one but still a shower, every single day. Harry wasn't sure that it was helping the rash that was on his body. She was afraid that he was coming down with something and it was why he had been made to shower as much as he was and then why he was put outside when it wasn’t going away.

The rash was the second thing that had started to bother him, first was the taste of food. It all tasted wrong and horrible. Thankfully, he knew what the food he made for his aunt, uncle, and Dudley should be cooked without having to taste it. He had been doing it for so long. There was a whine, and Harry looked around for the animal that had been doing it. Harry curled tighter into a ball, and he tried to cover his ears as another crack sounded and it was much closer. The wind was picking up, and Harry knew that it was only a matter of time until the storm was properly on the area.

Several minutes later, Harry heard the first raindrop hit the ground in front of him. It sounded like a car backfiring, and he whimpered again. Harry pressed his hands over his head and tried to go inside of himself. He sometimes could do that, go inside and not come out until the bad sounds or smells were gone. He tried to go there, but it was impossible. There was no escaping it.

The rain started up, and the drops that landed on him were like needles poking him. It was horrible, and he hated it, and yet he knew, somehow, that it could be worse. His shirt protected him from the pain hitting his back hard, but he could still feel each drop as it landed on him. Harry silently begged for someone to come and save him. He didn't care who it was, he wanted to be saved from whatever was happening because of his aunt or uncle found out that he was more of a freak than he usually was, they might just beat him to death to try and beat it out of him.

Harry heard a whine and knew that it wasn't from him. He forced his head up and looked at the beautiful white wolf in front of him. He hadn't ever seen a wolf as England had no natives ones left, but he had learned about them in school. Harry cocked his head to the side, and he knew that the wolf wasn't going to hurt him. The wolf crouched down and laid his head on his paws before he wiggled forward. Harry reached his hand out and touched the wolf's snout. It was soft and warm, and it made Harry feel better. Harry crawled out of the corner where he was, and he wrapped himself around the body of the wolf and started to cry.

"Save me, please. Save me," Harry begged into the fur of the animal as he also realised that despite the pouring rain, the wolf was not wet and didn't smell like wet dog.

The wolf pushed up, getting to its feet and it turned to lick the side of Harry's face before it disappeared from sight. Harry fell over his support no longer there. Harry rolled over and covered his head with his hands and laid there. Maybe if he laid like that long enough he could just go away forever, it would be better than the constant pain that he was in.

* * *

Draco Malfoy was sitting in his small reading room that was off his bedroom. When he had been younger, it had been full of toys, but as he approached the age of going to Hogwarts, he had asked his mother to have the toys condensed and moved to the room across the hall and a few bookshelves put into the room. His book collection was small as the stories he had read as a child were few and far between, or at least the ones that he wanted to read more than once. Draco knew that he was picky when it came to stories and many that he had read even just a year ago no longer interested him.

There was a knock on the door, it was quiet in a way that only a House Elf could do while making sure that the Witch or Wizard that they were trying to get the attention of could hear them.

"Enter," Draco called out as he looked up from his book. He was seated in what Muggles called a beanbag chair. It was Slytherin green in colour with silver stitching. He had seen it in a window of a shop when his mother had taken him around for shelves for his reading room and had fallen in love. Draco knew that he was spoiled, but as he was an only child, it was to be expected. Draco knew that he had more than others and there was an orphanage that his mother donated to on a regular basis, it was money and not time like many other things that she did, but she still did it. Draco gave his books to the kids there that he had outgrown or if he knew that he wasn't going to reread the story. The toys across the hall would be given to them as well.

"Master Draco, your mother wanted to let you know that dinner is delayed by about twenty minutes. There was an issue with the new wards around the Manor, and it interfered with the spell on the oven," Dobby said after he had stuck his head into the room. Not even Draco's parents entered the reading room unless they were explicitly invited. It was Draco's room, his sanctuary and it had the most potent spells to help protect him.

Draco had come online four summers before, just after he had turned seven years old, as a Guide. He was the first to come online in the Malfoy family ever, as a Guide or a Sentinel. Draco remembered his life before and how his father was. Draco coming online had shifted the Malfoy family in ways that Draco had never expected. All talk of his father's Dark Lord had stopped overnight. Draco knew that the Dark Lord had not suffered a Sentinel or Guide that he came across to live. The fact that the Malfoy family had never had one before had meant that it was safe for them to serve the Dark Lord, until Draco.

"Tell mother that I'll be down as soon as I finish this chapter."

"I tells her, Master Draco." Dobby bowed his head and disappeared out the door, shutting it behind him with barely a sound. Draco looked down at the book in his hand and started to read again. The chapter only took ten minutes to read, but Draco needed to get changed for dinner. While clothing was relaxed at dinner when there was no one but the three of them around, Draco still liked to actually dress out of his play clothes as it were.

Draco could feel the storm that was coming down on them, and he hoped that it waited until dinner was over before hitting the Manor grounds. The east garden was enclosed to where rain did not fall on it as it was a very peculiar garden that needed exacting standards on the care of the plants. The Elves that were in charge of it didn't mind Draco standing in it as long he was careful. Draco loved to be outside in storms. He was born during one of the worst thunderstorms that the area had ever seen. His father said it was why he loved to be out in them.

It was still ten minutes to dinner when Draco came down the steps from his wing of the Manor. His father could be seen in his office, looking over papers. Draco's magical signature had been given over to the Magical Sentinel and Guide Bureau to help him find a Sentinel. Draco was online and powerful, and he did not handle going out in public well at all. Thankfully Hogwarts was much protected, much more than even Draco's father had been able to protect the manor. A thousand years of Sentinels and Guides going to Hogwarts meant that it was a safe place for the unbonded. Draco didn't know how he felt about going to Hogwarts with a Sentinel already or getting to know one and then bonding several years in the future when that Sentinel came online.

There was no book that wasn't published that Draco's father hadn’t bought on Sentinels and Guides, Muggle or Magical. Draco had read all of the ones that he was allowed as some had to do with aspects of bonding that Draco was not ready for.

An arc of lightning danced behind the window in his father's study, and Draco turned to go to the kitchen. There was a set of sliding glass doors in the kitchen that gave the Elves access to the herb and vegetable garden that they tended so Draco walked there. He stood and watched the lighting. He felt a nudge on his leg and looked down. Paracelsus was there at Draco's feet and rubbing against him. Paracelsus was always with Draco but he rarely ever was there enough to actually push into Draco. He wondered if it was the storm that was causing that.

Something was moving out in the garden, and Draco focused hard on it to make it out. He opened up the doors thinking that it might be a House Elf getting something for dinner or even breakfast if it was one of those casseroles that his mother was fond of. There was a flash of white and then Draco was looking at a very wet wolf. Draco slammed the door shut, and he turned around to scream for his father when he felt Paracelsus push at his knee. Draco looked down to see that his fox was focused wholly on the wolf. Dobby came over and looked outside.

"What's wrong?"

"Dobby get father!" Draco yelled before he jerked opened the doors and ran out to where the wolf was. Draco's hands went through the wolf when he dropped to his knees in front of him. The rain started to fall as Draco looked at the Spirit Animal in front of him. Paracelsus rubbed against the legs of the poor thing, and it seemed to get stronger just from that touch alone. Draco held out his hand, and the wolf butted against it. Draco felt nothing but pain. Whoever's Spirit Animal this was, they were in a great deal of pain.

Draco heard two sets of adult footsteps, and then he felt the swirl of magic as one of his parents cast a spell to stop the rain from hitting him. Draco turned and looked at them.

"My Sentinel is in pain," Draco said.

"Bloody hell," his father said, but he looked determined. He turned to look at Draco's mother. "Get a room in Draco's wing ready and get the healer here. Draco and I will be returning with a Sentinel in distress, Narcissa."

"You can't just take the poor child."

"No, no Witch or Wizard worth anything in this world would have a child in so much pain that their Spirit Animal would search out there Guide in such a way, especially before they have even met, Narcissa. So that means that the Sentinel is either hurt out where no one else can get to them or this is being done to them. Whoever is in charge of the child does not deserve them."

Draco buried his fingers into the soft fur of the wolf and pulled him close. He could feel desperation from the person who was his Sentinel.

"My Sentinel sent him for help," Draco said.

"Then help he shall get." Draco's father reached down and helped Draco up. Draco knew that they could see the wolf because Draco was touching him, but when his hand slipped from the fur, they could no longer see him. "Do you know where he is?"

"No. I can't...feel him."

"We will figure that out. Draco this storm is horrid in the areas that it has been in so, please dress warmly and bring a good blanket with your scent on it as well as that travelling cloak of yours that you outgrew. It will help settle your Sentinel when we find him."

"I'll have the Elves hold dinner for us and make something from that book that I bought for cooking for Sentinels who are unbonded," Draco's mother said as she started back inside the manor.

Draco scrambled to do what his father wanted with Paracelsus and the wolf on his feet. Before going back down, Draco stuffed the items that his father wanted him to bring into his bag that had an expansion charm on it. He also grabbed the bear that he had bought for his Sentinel. Draco had slept with it a few times, and it smelled like him as well.

It was another ten minutes before Draco walked down the stairs to meet his father at the point where they could leave the house from. His father was waiting there with a parchment in his hand. Draco recognised it as a scroll that his father had been given to him by the Bureau on how to deal with a Sentinel in distress.

"Ready?" his father asked, and he looked scared. Draco felt frightened as well. His father held out his hand, and Draco nearly ran to his side to tuck himself in there. Draco's father's arm wrapped around him, and then they were going. Draco opened his eyes because if he kept them open during side-along apparition, he always got a very upset stomach. He saw that they were outside of the entrance to Diagon from the Muggle world. Draco felt his Sentinel and looked down to see that the wolf was there. It had followed them in apparition.

"He's still here, and I feel my Sentinel, father." Draco knew that his father didn't like it when he fell back on the formal name he had used before his father had changed in the aftermath of Draco coming online, but it made him feel safe.

"Which way?" his father asked.

Draco looked around and then down at the wolf. It was looking very intently in a specific direction Draco pointed that way.

It took ten hops of apparition for Draco to know that they were close.

"Little Whinging," his father said.

"Dad!" Draco yelled as he saw the wolf running.

"Go," his father said, and Draco took off running after the wolf. Paracelsus was running faster than Draco. There was a house that looked perfect, and Draco was worried before he watched the wolf run through a fence that blocked the backyard from the eyes of everyone else on the street. Draco stopped just outside it and waited for his father who was on his heels. A quick spell from his father unlocked the gate and then into the back they went.

The wolf was nudging at a body of a boy who looked like he was younger than Draco, or at least he was smaller than Draco. Draco was scared about touching him, so he looked at his father. Draco had never seen his father as upset as he looked when he looked at the boy on the ground.

Draco watched his father rush forward to roll the boy onto his back. His fingers were gentle as they took his pulse in the Muggle fashion, but it was unsure what kind of reaction the Sentinel would have with magic being cast on him. The wolf was whining, and Draco rushed over to give him comfort.

"He's zoned because of the storm," Draco's father said. He pulled his wand and cast a great deal of spells around them. Draco heard the muttered words for spells that would make it so that Muggles wouldn't see them as well as keeping the rain from them. Draco looked at the door of the house and debated for a few seconds before he abandoned the wolf there and walked over. There was a family of three inside, and they were eating supper. The boy at the table looked like he was many years older by his sheer size, but his face put him around Draco's age. There was a family resemblance between the three, so it was a mother, father, and a son. There was no evidence that the boy in the yard lived there. There was no place setting for him, so that made Draco wonder where he came from.

Draco turned back to his father to see that he was casting spells to check on the health of the boy. Being in a zone out wasn't good, but it wouldn't be damaging if he was in it for a short period and the zone out helped because Draco's father casting on the Sentinel wouldn't hurt him or upset him.

"Where does he live?" Draco asked.

"Here," his father answered. "I can feel the wards on the property as well as evidence of accidental bouts of magic. He's a Muggle-born."

"The family inside is eating, and there is no place set for him at the dinner table, father."

"Then I will be leaving with the boy, and we will worry about his things at a later point in time. Or just buy him whatever he wants new," Draco's father said.

"How can..." Draco didn't finish the sentence.

"There are some Muggles, just like Magical folk that look down on certain people. I will say this, this boy's magic doesn't have the connection to this place that it should. He's not happy, and he's not healthy. I will let him come back here over my dead body."

Draco nodded. He didn't want the boy to come back either. Draco still hadn't "met" him, but he didn't want him coming back to a place that would treat him so. He shouldn't have been out in the storm.

"His clothes," Draco said.

"Yes." His father sounded very upset, and Draco couldn't blame him. His father might get angry, but he would never hurt Draco, not that way. The last time that one of his former friends had tried that after Draco had come online, Draco had dropped the man like a rock.

"It looks like they fit the boy inside and are maybe things he no longer fits in."

"I would say yes. You stay with him, Draco. I want to look at this family."

Draco watched his father stand up, and he walked to the door. Draco wasn't sure if they were a full Muggle family or if one of them was a witch or a wizard. Draco didn't touch his Sentinel, he wasn't sure what that would do, but both the wolf and Paracelsus were laying over him. Draco's father watched the family inside for a long time before he turned to come back to Draco. He waved his hand, and the two Spirit Animals got off of the Sentinel, and then Draco's father cast a spell to have the Sentinel float with them. Draco grabbed his father's hand when he held it out and then they were going.

His father put them right into the foyer of the house where his mother was standing with the healer that Draco had been seeing since he had come online. The man was well versed in caring for Magical Sentinels and Guides. His name was Alistair, and Draco liked him a lot. His magic felt really good to Draco, but that could just be that he was a Guide. Alistair was bonded to a Sentinel who worked for the Auror Corp.

"Lucius, is this the Sentinel of young Draco?"

"Yes. We found him zoned out in the backyard in the middle of this storm. He is in clothes that look like they fit the boy who also lives in the house and is at least twice the boy's size. The wards on the house were tied to this boy's magical signature and were close to breaking." Draco's father sounded just as upset as he had before. Draco tucked himself into his father's side to help calm him down. His father tried to not have severe emotions when he was touching Draco.

"He is zoned because of the storm I would say. The feel of the rain, the smell of the storm, the noise, and with him coming online I would say that we are lucky he didn't go feral and kill the family he was living with. Muggle-born?" Alistair stepped close to the boy who was still hovering in the air.

"I couldn't say. I think that the woman in the house has some, but whether she knows about magic or not, I have no clue."

"Well, I told Narcissa the same thing that I will tell you. I have to take the privacy of this boy as strong as I do any others. Until a time that you are made his guardian, or whoever is, I will only tell you the medical things that are needed to make sure that he's taken care of, but that's it. I will not give away anything that is private." Alistair pulled his wand and cast a spell on the boy, and nothing happened. "I'll take him up to the room that Narcissa showed me. She convinced the Manor to open a door between the two rooms so that there is a connection between Draco's bedroom and his bedroom. Once I have made my determination I will call who I need to about the boy."

"Can you find out his name?" Draco asked.

"I will try my dear Draco. Why don't you go and eat? He's going to need you strong. I will try and work in out of his Zone as soon as I have everything I need to know about him so that my casting on him doesn't upset him."

Draco nodded and turned toward the kitchen. As he passed his mother, she cast a spell at him to dry him off. Draco figured that the adults wanted to talk without him hearing what was being said. Dobby was just inside the dining room. The large table that was used for parties was in the dungeon somewhere. The Elves always got it out when it was needed. Instead, there were two tables in the room, one had his mother's things scattered over it. Papers for various charities that she worked for. HIs father tried to get her to take over an office, but she didn't like it. She loved the lighting in the dining room as it was a charmed ceiling that had several places around the world tied to it. She always set it for the French Riviera when she was working. The cost of making an office with a charmed ceiling like that would be expensive, but Draco knew that it was going to be the anniversary gift for his mother on the next big one that they had. He knew that their twentieth was coming up in four years.

Draco sat down in his seat at the second table and the lid lifted off of his plate on its own. Draco's stomach rumbled with forgotten hunger, and he smiled as it was one of his favourite meals. Draco tucked into it. If his parents didn't want him eating they would have told him before he left the main foyer. Simple water was in a glass but beside it was juice of some kind. It was pale purple, and when Draco took a sip, he found it was grape along with something else. He liked it and drank nearly half. Draco worked on his food until it was gone, including the second helping of vegetables that appeared after he finished the first. He blamed Dobby for that, but he didn't want to cause a scene, so he ate them.

Just as Draco was finishing off his juice, his parents sat down at the table and started to eat.

"What are we going to do if the Ministry tries to keep him from me?" Draco asked.

"That won't happen, Draco, I won't let it. Keeping a Sentinel from their Guide is a high crime in both the Muggle and the Magical world. There are enough people that will come down on them within the Government that is local as well as abroad. I will bring in the ICW if I need to. He'll leave here by someone else's hand over my dead body."

"Dear, don't say that," Draco's mother said.

"I have read everything that I can get my hands on Narcissa, and I refuse to let them harm Draco and that boy. If the boy himself wants to go elsewhere, that is different, and I will make sure that he's well taken care of even if I have to pay for it myself.”

The whole of the Manor shook, and Draco looked at his parents in shock. Dobby appeared beside Draco ready to run with him if it was needed but the wards around the house shifted, and even Draco could feel them.

"Merlin," Draco's father said as he stood up. He dropped his napkin from his hand to the seat he had been on, and he looked at Draco and his mother before holding out his hand to Draco. "I think that maybe we should head up to see your Sentinel and make sure that Alistair is okay."

Draco slipped his hand into his father's, and he felt his mother move behind him. Draco felt his hand starting to shake. He was nervous. Draco had a great deal of Magic in his core but to shake the whole of the Manor, to interfere with the wards that had been on the Manor for a very long time was not good.

The door to the room right beside Draco's was open, and when Draco looked inside, he saw that the boy was crouched at the side of the room and he was looking at Alistair like he was going to kill him if the man got close. The wolf and Paracelsus were on either side of him.

"Draco," Alistair said, and Draco stepped closer, letting go of his father's hand. "Come forward boy. He can smell you on the blankets, but he can't feel you, not yet. He came out of the zone out as soon as I touched his core and broke the blocks that had been placed on him. His magic was bound. He'll be a powerful Wizard and a very strong Sentinel."

"He's naked," Draco said as he stopped when he was level with Alistair.

"Yes, yes he is. The clothes were giving him a rash. The Muggles he lived with were not washing his clothes in detergents that would stop him from getting a rash from the chemicals. I would say that they didn't know what he was, but they knew that he was magical."

The boy looked at Draco with sharp green eyes. Draco had seen a pair of eyes like that before, and it had been on a painting to commemorate the people who died in the war with the Dark Lord. Lily Potter had eyes like that. Draco looked at the hair on the boy, and it was black and messy but dry and much like Draco's when dried with a spell it went everywhere.

Draco's eyes were drawn to the fringe of the boy's hair, and he saw the start of a scar there. Draco turned and looked at his father, but his father was just looking at the Sentinel in mild curiosity. His father hadn't seen it yet. Draco looked at his mother, and she hadn't either. Alistair was last, and by the look in his eyes, he knew.

There was no way that Draco was going to let the Ministry get his hands on Sentinel. The Ministry had taken the boy and thrown him to a Muggle family that abused him. There was no other way of it.

"Father, I think that maybe we should launch war wards. Whoever put that block on my Sentinel's magic will feel it going away, and maybe a Fire call to the Goblins would be in order because I can't see where Harry's parents would have wanted him raised by Muggles who abused him."

"Harry? How do you know his name?" Draco's mother asked.

"Because of the scar on his forehead right where it's said that Harry Potter has a scar like that. He also has his mother's eyes."

"Harry Potter?" Draco's father asked, and he looked at the boy, and his face went an even paler shade of white. "Bloody hell."

# July 2, 1991

Draco looked up at the small clock that was on his wall. He knew that it was after midnight and so far Harry had said nothing. Alistair had tried his best to get the boy to say something and Draco's parents had even allowed him to go into Harry's room, but the boy had just sat in the corner and stared. Draco had no clue what to do to help his Sentinel, and he didn't like it. He was a Guide, he was supposed to know what to do, and it ached that he did not know. Draco hated it, and he really wanted to just go into the other room and see him, but his parents had locked the doors in a way that made it impossible for Draco to open them.

The doorknob to the room between his and Harry's turned and Draco looked up to see Harry entering. He was in the clothes that Draco's mother had transfigured for him. The clothes that Alistair had taken off of him was long gone. Draco was pretty sure that his mother set fire to them.

"Can you get the adults back again?" Harry asked, but he wasn't looking quite at Draco but in the general direction of them.

"Are you hungry?" Draco asked as he stood up from where he had been in a chair. Draco felt wired in a way that he never had and hadn't even tried to sleep.

"I'd rather just know what I am supposed to be doing." Harry touched the shirt he was wearing and looked down at it. "What I have to do to pay for these clothes and staying here."

Draco looked at Harry because he didn't understand. Harry didn't have to do a thing to pay for the clothes and what child would think that they had to? Draco knew that while he should be the one to help settle his Sentinel, he was out of his depth with this one.

"Dobby," Draco called softly.

Dobby appeared dressed in the same outfit he had been wearing just hours before. Harry gasped and stepped back like he was going to run. Dobby had made no noise when he appeared which wasn't out of character, but usually, Dobby did when he came to Draco so it must have been because of Harry that he didn't. All of the Elves in the Manor had been instructed on how to react, behave, and work around a Sentinel.

"I think that Harry needs to speak to my parents, Dobby. Can you wake them and find out where they want to meet with us?"

Dobby nodded, and he disappeared. Harry rushed forward and waved his hand where Dobby had been before he turned to look at Draco, meeting his eyes for the first time.

"What kind of creature was that and how did he go away?"

"Harry..." Draco felt like crying. A House Elf was a basic creature that all Wizards and Witches knew about. "Harry, what do you know about your parents?"

"My aunt and uncle told me that they died in a car crash. That's how I got this." Harry raised up the fringe on his hair and showed Draco the scar that was there.

"Oh dear," Draco said as the door to the room opened up, and Harry scrambled back from where it was, and he looked in fear at Draco's parents. With the way that they both entered the room and stepped away from the door, leaving it open so that Harry could run, Draco figured that they saw the fear in his eyes.

"Mr Potter, I'm glad that you are feeling better. My name is Lucius Malfoy, and this is my wife Narcissa and our son Draco. Welcome to our home."

Harry looked unsure on what to say, but Draco wanted to make sure that Harry stopped thinking that he needed to do anything to earn his clothes and a place to live. Draco felt Harry almost reaching out for him. There was something that Harry was doing without noticing, and while Draco relished in that touch, he didn't touch back.

"Harry wants to know what he has to do to earn his clothes and staying here. Also, he didn't know what kind of creature Dobby was. He's also been told that his parents died in a car crash."

"I see," Lucius said. He waved his hand, and two chairs appeared.

Draco looked into Harry's eyes and saw the wonder there as he tried to stop himself from rushing forward. Draco had a tight lid on his Guide gifts to not start a bond with Harry before they were both ready and right then, Draco knew that Harry was nowhere near prepared.

"What do you know of your parents, Mr Potter?"

"Mr...I'm just plain Harry, Sir." Harry looked down at his bare feet and wiggled his toes before he looked back up at Draco's father. "I know that my aunt and uncle like to reference that he was probably a drunkard."

"Your aunt and uncle?" Draco's father asked before he looked at his wife. He looked back at Harry. "And your cousin? That's who you were living with?"

"Yes, Sir. I've lived with them since my parents died and since my family had nothing, I have to help around the house."

Draco felt the anger from his father and knew that things were not good.

"My dear boy, I don't..." Draco's father swallowed and frowned before he cleared his throat. "You parents were not killed in a car accident. The thought that it was what took them out is laughable. Your mother and father were two of the most powerful witches and wizards of this age."

"Witch, wizard?" Harry asked. He looked at the chairs that had been conjured. "Is that how you got those chairs and how Dobby appeared and disappeared?"

"You don't know about magic?" Draco's mother asked.

"No, Ma'am. I've always felt that something was missing." Harry stopped talking, and he yawned. He tried to cover it up but was unable to.

"I know that you have a lot of questions but tonight is not the night for them, Harry," Draco's mother said, and she stepped up to him. She cupped the side of his face gently. Harry's eyes closed. "Let me get you back into bed, and we can have a long talk in the morning. I'll show you magic and teach you everything about it."

"I'm not tired," Harry said but his eyes were drooping, and he swayed a little on his feet.

"No, you are not tired at all. You are knackered," Draco's mother said with a smile on her face. She turned him around and marched him into his bedroom and shut the door behind her.

Draco looked at his father. "How can he not know about magic?"

"I am unsure, but I am going to find out everything. Draco, I know that you don't want to hurt him, but as soon as we find out his knowledge on Sentinels and Guides, I think that it would be best for that bond to happen as soon as possible. I'm afraid that with his lack of knowledge on the Wizarding world, there is something more nefarious going on and the only way to make sure that he's not whisked away from us is that bond. I know you won't do it without his consent and I agree with that. He's been mistreated in a most foul way. Even my father was never that abusive to me. The fact that his family has him as a slave in their house when I am sure that the Potter monies are paying for a great deal of their things is abusive in the highest degree."

"He will need a good tutor to get on track for school in September," Draco pointed out.

"I know, and I'm already looking into that. I do not figure that his general education was that great either. You need sleep Draco, and you haven't been in your bed at all. I'm going to lay you down use that gentle spell that your mother uses on you. Harry needs you to be strong because tomorrow is going to be hard on the boy and he’s doing to need you to be strong for him."

Draco nodded, and he walked into the room with his bed. He laid down and waited for his father to do what he said he was going to do. Draco closed his eyes as he felt the magic over his body, pulling him gently into sleep.

* * *

Draco was used to waking up cold, he tended to kick his blankets off of himself in the night. Usually, one of the Elves would try and check on him, but Draco knew that with Harry in the Manor the Elves were probably very busy doing other things. However this time Draco was warm. He was really warm, and he felt different. He tried to move but found that he had rolled himself up in his blankets. Until the blankets moved.

There was breath on his neck, and Draco knew that whoever it was, it wasn't one of his parents. HIs mother slept on top of the blankets when he was having trouble sleeping and needed the buffer of one of his parents. His father always slept sitting up, and Draco would wrap his arms around his father's legs. It wasn't one of the Elves because outside of when he was sick as a child they had never slept with him. The Elves would force his parents to get sleep, and they would stay up with him, but they just sat on the edge of the bed.

Draco opened his eyes to see that the arm that was wrapped around him was the same size as him. It had to be Harry. Draco looked at the door that led out of his bedroom and found that it was open, as was the door that led to Harry's room.

Harry was dreaming, and it lured Draco into it. Draco watched from the side as something green flashed past him and then it felt like he was flying and there was the sound of something rumbling really loudly. Harry jerked out of the dream, and he rolled away from Draco before sitting up. Draco rolled onto his back and looked at his Sentinel, and he knew right then that Harry had crawled into bed and they had bonded while they were asleep. Draco could hear Harry's heartbeat at the back of his mind, steady despite him looking around in fear for a few seconds.

"Morning," Draco said.

"You are a Guide," Harry said.

"Yes. What do you know about them?"

"There was a Sentinel and Guide couple that moved down the street from Aunt and Uncle's house a few years before. My Aunt ran them off after three months. I learned everything that I could about them after that. I didn't dream it did I? I came online as a Sentinel didn't I?"

"Yes."

"And you are my Guide?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Draco Malfoy." Draco stuck out his hand, and Harry shook it but didn't let it go.

"And magic is real, and I'm a Wizard?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"Tell me everything."

Draco pulled Harry back down to where they were under the covers again, on their sides facing each other. They talked until his mother came in and saw that they were in bed together. Draco felt her emotions as she watched them for several minutes before she cleared her throat. Harry jumped up and out of the bed as soon as she made the noise. Harry had been so focused on Draco that he didn't realise that someone else had entered the room.

"Breakfast is ready. Harry, we have a guest here that would like to meet with you after the meal."

"Who is it?" Draco asked.

"Slagstone, the manager of your parents' bank account at our Wizarding bank Gringott's."

"Why does he want to meet with me?" Harry asked.

"Because he is very upset that you were not introduced to magic as you should have been. It seems that since you were four years old a tutor has been paid for out of the trust account that was set up to make sure you had what you needed as a child, but as your lack of even knowing what magic is, well that means that no tutor has been teaching you. So that means someone is taking that money. There are other matters that Slagstone refused to discuss with Lucius and me until he had talked to you. He's willing to wait until you eat because he understands that you are...malnourished."

"That's what the doctor said last night. That I've barely gotten what I've needed to live as a...Muggle much less a Wizard or a Sentinel."

"He gave us a few meal plans that we can use to boost you up slowly."

"I don't have..." Harry looked away like he was afraid of asking.

"You have three things that you have to do while living here Harry and that's it. The first is to be a good boy, meaning don't do things that will hurt you or Draco. The second is to learn to become what you are supposed to be."

"And the third?"

"To have fun."

Draco watched his Sentinel start to cry, and he rushed forward and fell into Draco's mother's body, crying. Draco knew that he should have felt jealous as she was his mother, but Harry had never had one. Harry was his Sentinel, and it meant that they had to share and Draco was very okay with that.

"I don't have to go back there?" Harry asked from where he was still sheltered in Draco's mother's arms.

"No, Harry, you never have to go back there," Draco said as he stepped forward. He touched Harry's neck, and he felt the overwhelming mix of emotions in his Sentinel. Draco didn't pull him back from his mother but instead just stood there, helping to make sure that his Sentinel didn't zone on sheer emotions.

There was a soft pop, and Draco looked back to see Dobby standing there.

"Master Lucius is worried and will be coming up soon."

"It is okay, Dobby," Draco's mother said as she pulled up and out of Harry's arms. Harry didn't try and follow, but he moved back into Draco's arms. "While we are eating breakfast how about you see about getting that bigger bed that we talked about. It seems that young Harry here slipped into Draco's bed and given how Draco keeps touching him, I think that they bonded."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Miss Narcissa?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"I...dreamed of things last night after getting into bed with Draco. There is someone from my childhood that has a smell like you."

"Your Godfather Sirius," Draco's mother said.

"Well...I...I dreamed about him. I remember something that I never have before about him."

"What?" Draco asked.

"He was there as well as another person. He smells bad, and no one else notices it. My dad says something about a secret keeper."

"Yes?" Draco's mother asked, and the emotions in the room were full of despair, and Draco knew that it came from his mother.

"The other man, the one who smells bad he's made the secret keeper, and Sirius promises mom and dad that everything is going to think that he is, but it's the other guy."

"Mom isn't Sirius in..." Draco trailed off as his mother hissed at him.

"Harry, that's something that we need to discuss with Slagstone," Draco's mother said as she reached out for Draco's hand to pull them from the room. Draco wondered what kind of other secrets that Harry had in his head because Sirius Black was in prison for betraying the Potter's as their secret keeper and for killing Peter Pettigrew for Pettigrew going after him to kill him for betraying the Potter's. Draco knew about it because it was another thing that was well known in the Wizarding World. If Pettigrew was the actual Secret Keeper, then that meant that Black went after him for killing the Potter's and Sirius was in jail for nothing or at least nothing in Draco's eyes. Black was an Auror and was taking out the man that had killed the only family he had ever claimed. Draco knew that Muggles had lost their lives, but it was never proved who had cast the spell that had blown up the place, it was just all placed on Black. Draco didn't like it because it meant that Black could get out and then Black would take Harry away from him. Draco didn't want him to go away.

The breakfast table in the sunroom that got the full morning sun was laid with lots of different foods. Draco had never seen so many. His parents didn't like a lot of food to be made for just the three of them, but it was all things that Draco knew that the Elves liked so he figured that the Elves would eat what was left. It was also evident that the spread was for Harry to find out what he liked and didn't. Draco saw that there was a lot of meat compared to normal as well. Bacon, sausages, ham steaks, and even what looked like actual beef steaks.

Draco's mother prodded Harry into a seat and handed over something to him. Draco saw that it was milk. There was also a potion bottle beside the plate.

"This is a nutrient potion that is going to help you, Harry. It'll help with the damage done to you from not being fed enough. It's going to taste horrible, but the milk will help. Take it like a good boy, and I'll let you eat a pastry."

Harry picked up the bottle and drank it all, his face going a little green before the end. He nearly threw the bottle down and drank the milk before taking the pastry that Draco's mother handed him. Harry took a bit, and it looked like it was the best thing that Harry had ever tasted. Draco's own hunger left him, but he forced himself to eat. He didn't like what Harry had gone through.

# July 15, 1991

Draco watched Harry as he looked over the wands in the shop. Two weeks of lessons from the best tutor in England had Harry as least mostly ready to start Hogwarts. It would be easy for Harry to keep on reading and doing lessons by himself. Despite the lack of care and really anything else that a child needed growing up, Harry still was very intelligent. Harry confessed to stopping doing well in school when he got in trouble for bringing home better grades than his cousin. He stopped doing well on tests but made sure that he understood it all and could do it while in his cupboard.

The fact that Harry Potter had slept in a cupboard under the stairs had shocked Draco, and even Draco's father had been greatly upset by it. Along with a tutor for magical and educational lessons, Draco's mother had found a discreet Mind Healer from France to work with Harry. Harry had changed dramatically in the two weeks that he had been with them. There was still no word on who should have been checking on him. A Magical placed in a Muggle home had to be checked over by someone from the Child Welfare Office, and yet Draco's father had found none of this in the files he had looked at. There was no file for Harry in the office which meant that he wasn't where he was supposed to be.

The Potter's Will reading had been sealed by the courts, and no one knew anything about it.

"Mr Potter," the wandmaker Ollivander said as he came out of the back of the shop. "I've been looking forward to you arriving for many years."

The man disappeared and came back with a wand box. He opened it and presented it to Harry. Harry reached out to touch it but the wand wiggled violently, and before they could do anything it disintegrated in front of them.

"Oh, my."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, and he sounded like a scared child. Draco rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Harry. Accidental bouts of magic when he was scared of being hurt was normal for Harry, but Draco could stop it.

"It's perfectly fine, Mr Potter. You can't help what Magic does. Only Magic could have done that. Let's see about another wand for you."

"Draco's had to be custom made, Garrick and I fear that Mr Potter's will have to be as well," Draco's father said.

Ollivander looked down at the two of them and then grinned. "Of course, come on back."

Draco went first while it was usually the Sentinel that took the lead, at that time many Magical things still shocked Harry and he was learning slowly what he could and could not do. He tended to touch, but if Draco was walking somewhere without him, he followed never wanting to be parted from Draco.

They were in the back of the wand shop for two hours while the cores and woods were looked over. Harry's wand was holly and with a phoenix feather.

"Interesting," Ollivander said as he worked on setting up the core the wand.

"Why?" Draco's mother asked.

"Because that is exactly the core and the wood from the other wand. Also, this feather is from the exact same bird that the other was just...the feather that was in the other wand was given at the same time as another feather. The wands were brother wands."

"It's rare but not unheard of. I have heard of twins who have wands cores that are like that," Draco's father said.

"Yes but you see the brother wand to the one that I tried to give to Harry was chosen many years ago. Many, many. The man who chose it was named Tom Riddle."

Draco didn't know that name, but by the emotions that he felt in the air, his parents knew exactly who that was.

"I see. And Harry's magic destroyed that wand."

"The Sentinel in him destroyed it yes. I expect a lot of great things from you. The wand can be picked up next week. There is..." Ollivander stopped as the bell chimed on the door to say that another customer had entered. "The Minister for Magic is doing the opening of a business around right now. Might I suggest that when you come and pick up the wand, you finish up taking care of their things for Hogwarts? Despite the drastic changes that you have made since your son came online, Lucius, I don't think that the Magical World is ready for you to parade around with Harry Potter on your son's arm."

"I much agree," Draco's father said.

"I have the back exit, and there is an exit apparition point back there. Please feel free to use it."

"Thank you."

"No book store?" Harry asked.

"Not today."

"Okay. I still have a few books I can read."

Draco laughed and pulled Harry with him out of the shop. Draco knew that his parents would want to talk to Ollivander alone.

"Who is Tom Riddle?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, but given my parent's reactions to him, I think it's the man who became Lord Voldemort." Draco wasn't going to hide things like that from Harry. There was a massive target on the back of Harry because Draco's father was pretty sure that the Dark Lord wasn't entirely dead. Since Draco had become a Guide, there had been a lot of research put into how the Dark Lord had not died when the Killing Curse had rebounded at him after he had tried to kill Harry.

"He's the one who killed my parents." Harry was a calm pond at the moment in Draco's mind. He wasn't prone to emotional change, and the only one that did breakthrough was fear. Draco hated it. Harry enjoyed reading, and he was doing well at becoming more and more open, but the good emotions from his Sentinel were few and far between.

"Yes."

"I wouldn't want a brother wand to his, Draco." The fear was creeping back in, the pond that was Harry turning dark in Draco's mind.

"No, I can't see where you would. When we get home, I'll make father tell you everything about the things we've kept from you. I know that you've noticed when father or mother had skirted truth."

"I'm fragile and too overwhelmed, and they are scared of hurting me. I know when people lie to me, Draco but I also know if they mean to hurt or to harm. Scent changes in people when they lie. That tutor that your mother found to help me with my senses has helped. I don't feel everything like I used to. I also like the clothes, they didn't have to buy me such nice things." Harry touched the shirt that he was wearing, it was not the dress finery that Draco would usually be wearing when out and about, but there was a notice me not on the two of them so that others wouldn't see them, Muggle or Wizard.

"They had not bought you nice things because they are trying to do anything. There is a certain status you have, Harry as the only surviving Potter and right now you are hidden, but there will come a time when you are not. It'll be hard to hide you for long, and you need to be well adjusted to life like you should be living. Everything that my parents have bought you they have done because they are trying to make up for what you had endured in the Muggle World. You did not deserve that."

Harry shrugged as he usually did. Draco wasn't sure if it was Harry or the Sentinel in him that pushed things like that aside. Draco knew that the Sentinel mind didn't linger on things that were done. There was no remorse in surviving or doing the things needed to survive, but this was different.

"It's done, Draco and I'm well fed, I have a good bed to sleep in, I don't have to do housework or cook, or take care of the adults who should be taking care of me. I can't linger on that." Harry stepped up to Draco and cupped his cheeks before pressing their foreheads together. Draco closed his eyes and just basked in the feel of his Sentinel touching him.

Draco knew that the bond would stay platonic for many years. They were just eleven, well Harry was almost eleven. But the bond wasn't going to push for anything more until they were both ready for that. Right now they were best friends, and it was a good place for Harry because he had no friends. Harry had spent the third night after he had come to stay at the Manor and told them everything. All of the Elves had been there as well, and Draco knew that not a single one of them had not been unaffected. Even his father had tears in his eyes. Draco's mother was still pissed about it. Every time that Harry flinched away from her hand before leaning in for the touch, Draco felt her anger.

There was a lot of anger, but Harry was learning that the anger wasn't directed at him. It was directed at those who had wronged him. Severe changes though still made him a little wary, but he didn't flinch away from any of them.

The sound of walking told Draco that his parents were coming out to them, so he pulled back from Harry just because he wanted Harry to have a chance to calm down on his own without Draco having to help.

Draco's mother wrapped an arm around him while his father wrapped an arm around Harry and then they were heading home.

After dinner that night, Draco forced his parents to tell Harry everything about the war and what his father had done in it. Draco's father had not wanted to but with everything coming out about it all so anyway with Sirius Black getting the trial that he was supposed to have got before meant there would be new fervour by reporters for finding a new angle. Draco knew that Harry deserved to know everything that really happened and not a half-truth that was designed to keep him happy.

Harry stormed off into the kitchen and out through the doors. Draco tried to run after him, but his mother kept him in his seat. Draco reached out with his mind to try and pull his Sentinel back, but Harry was a mass of seething anger. The anger wasn't directed any of the three of them though.

"He will come back when he's better settled," Draco's mother said.

"He shouldn't be alone," Draco said.

"He's never alone as long as he has you. Reach out for him and help him that way. Learn what it's like to not be right there managing him."

"Mistress Cissa?" Dobby said as he entered the dining room. He looked upset.

"Yes?"

"There be Aurors at the gate. Dobby stop them from ringing. It's a whole squad, and they want to search the property."

"What for?" Draco's father asked.

"They not answer but it is a him that they be searching for."

"The Goblins made their move, and now it's known that Harry is not where he's supposed to be. Draco call him back, and I'll put him in the ritual room."

"He can't go in there!" Draco said.

"No, non-family can't go in there, but he and I tried it after you bonded and he can go in. Magic sees him as your husband, despite your age. He will be safer there than anywhere else in the whole of the house. We need to hurry."

Draco pushed out for Harry and found that he was calm. There was little that Draco needed to do but make it known to Harry that it was better inside. Harry came back inside at a run just a moment later. Draco explained what was up as he walked Harry down to the dungeon level. Draco watched as Harry stepped through to the room that no one else would be able to see much less enter. The magic in the room would make it so that no one would be able to tell that there was a third Magical in the Manor.

The Aurors were arriving at the door when Draco came back up. He stopped in the potions lab and grabbed the simple potion that had been in stasis for his mother to look over to tell him how well he did. It was as good of any reason for Draco to come up from the lower level.

"What is that?" the first Auror demanded as he pointed at what Draco had in his hand.

"It's a simple menses potion for girls who are getting their period for the first time. It's a simple potion that mother has been helping me learn so that I can be ready for Hogwarts," Draco said, and he offered the vial to the man, and he looked at it like it was covered in blood.

"Get over here with your parents," the Auror said.

"Yes, Sir." Draco walked over quickly and handed the potion to his mother. She took it and tucked him in between her and Draco's father. The rest of the Aurors spread out in the house, and Draco heard the crashes as things were destroyed. Draco knew that his father would have the family lawyer there as soon as possible.

Not ten minutes later, the family lawyer entered the foyer. He tutted, and there was a group of people behind him. Draco recognised two of them, and he gasped.

"What are you doing here? This is a crime scene."

"What exactly are you searching for?" the woman asked as she stepped up to the Auror, looking like she wasn't scared at all.

"This man is a Death Eater, and he's taken Harry Potter, hostage."

"Harry Potter?" the woman said.

"He is gone from the family that was caring for him."

"The family that has him living in a cupboard under the stairs. Who allowed him to stay outside in a thunderstorm that was so bad that it cost Muggles over a million pounds in lighting damage so far? That didn't realise that they were torturing a latent Sentinel with clothes and sounds and emotions that were damaging? He did not go missing from there. He was removed from the house and his guardians never even noticed for two days. You are to leave this house and cause no further damage to this house."

"Who do you think you are?" the Auror said.

"Me?" the woman said. She grinned, and Draco laughed. "My name is Aurora, and this is my husband, Jack Slater."

The Auror didn't look impressed.

"They are the Head War Mages for the ICW," Draco whispered to the Auror.

"What?" The Auror looked at her in shock and then back to the man behind her.

"We know exactly where young Sentinel Potter is, and he's safer than he would be in the hands of the Ministry who have not checked on him since he had been given to the Muggles who abused him. We are the only ones who need to know where he is," Jack said as he stepped up behind his wife. While Jack was the Sentinel and Aurora the Guide but Draco knew that she was as his friends would say, badass.

"You have no right."

"Harry Potter should have been tested for latency as there had not been a Sentinel or Guide who had not come online in the Potter line for twenty generations. As James Potter was latent and it's believed that he came online the night that he died given the carnage to the Death Eaters in the house that they died in, there was little doubt that Harry would come online."

"How long as the ICW been in London?" The Auror asked.

"You don't need to know that. Your bosses have been made aware of our investigation." Jack stepped around his wife and looked at the Auror. "My wife was serious about getting these Aurors out of here. Also, it's unlawful by the ICW and the British Ministry of Magic laws to destroy anything in the search of a house. I will be doing the search for the Manor myself. I have several Aurors who will be helping me. I have the Malfoy lawyer here as well." Jack looked ready to rip the man apart.

The Auror said nothing to Jack but spun on his heel and yelled for his people to come back. Draco watched as the Aurors left and none of them was happy about it.

"Thank you," Draco's father said as he stepped up to shake Jack's hand. Aurora stepped right over to Draco though and held out her hand.

"Let's go and get your Sentinel out of hiding, young Draco."

Draco slipped his hand into hers, and he felt a calm come over him like he had never felt before. He reached out to Harry and called him out of the ritual room. Harry met them halfway down the steps into the dungeon. Aurora was shocked.

"Hello, Sentinel Potter."

"Hello Guide Slater," Harry said with a grin on his face.

"You shouldn't be letting your hearing out that far!" Draco chasitzied Harry as he reached out for his Sentinel's hand.

Now that the ICW had finally come in, everything was going to be okay. The ICW wouldn't let them be separated and wasn't going to let anything happen to Harry or make him go back to the house with his Aunt and Uncle.

# September 1, 1991

Draco watched as Jack and Aurora walked Harry to the train. The adults in Draco's life had agreed that it was going to go better for everyone involved if it seemed that Harry and Draco met on the train for the first time and bonded there. Draco didn’t like it but he would do anything that would make life easier for him and Harry.

Between the ICW, the Goblins, and a few other high powered Sentinels and Guides within the Ministry of Magic, Harry was temporarily under the protected of Jack and Aurora. Overtures were being made like it was going to be permanent, but the Malfoys and the Slaters knew that it was just for show. Draco's parents would get custody of Harry the moment that it was known that Harry was bonded to Draco.

"Is that Potter?" Blaise asked as he stepped up behind Draco on the train.

"I think," Draco answered. He was staring intently at his Sentinel. Harry's glasses were gone, the issue with his eyes clearing up with the correct medical exams done. Sentinels rarely had sight issues, but the one that Harry had was easily fixed with a simple but costly spell. The ICW had made the Ministry pay for everything that had to do with Harry and his health from then until it was known that Harry was well and then after for check-ups and the like.

"Mother is livid about the whole thing," Blaise said before he settled in the seat across from Draco. The plan was set, and Draco knew that he had to be patient. Harry would find him.

"Why?"

"The whole hiding him away and no one checking on him. Headmaster Dumbledore is on her shite list. She stood up in front of the Wizengamot and demanded to know what would have happened if it was deemed that one of us was safer, for the greater good and all of that shite, if we're away from our parents. The rest of the Lords and Ladies didn't like the thought that their kid could be taken away and hidden in an abusive home. The fact that he came online before the age of fifteen is a wonder. I mean what kind of home would he have to be in that his magic and his body thought that him coming online was the only way to save him?"

"He looked good though. I guess I expected bruises, but then I'm sure that his new guardians would have had him healed as much as possible."

"I know there were rumours about Headmaster Dumbledore being removed from Hogwarts, but I haven't heard more on that. It's up to the Board of Governors more than the Wizengamot."

"Father has wanted him gone for years, but he's not told me what's going on with everything. He's been behind closed doors a lot lately."

"Well, I'm sure that he wants you protected. I know that his radical turn four years ago has a few people a little shocked and many mistrust him."

The noise on the train picked up, and Draco could feel Harry getting closer to him. The door opened, and there was Harry. Harry wasn't looking at him though, he was looking down the hall of the car.

"Blimey," Blaise said.

Harry didn't even look at him. Instead, he walked down the hall and was gone from sight. Draco reached out to him but found that he was pissed. Draco got up and followed him, waving Blaise forward.

Draco found Harry in the next car with Jack and Aurora at the other end of the car. There were two boys and a girl standing in the middle of the car.

"I'm just trying to help Neville here find his toad, Trevor," the girl said. She pointed at the boy that was beside her. The other boy was evidently a Weasley with the red hair. Neville had to be Neville Longbottom, a sort of friend of Draco's. Since Draco had publicly registered as a Guide, he had been finding new friends in strange places.

"Oh, really?" the Weasley said with a sneer. "You are just going to find Harry Potter. He's not going to make friends with you, stuck up know it all Muggle-born. He'll make friends with a Pure-blood, like me." The Weasley stuck his thumb into his chest and puffed up in pride.

"My mother was a Muggle-born," Harry said as he stepped forward. He leaned down and picked up a toad before handing it to Neville. Neville muttered a thank you before starting to walk away. "Longbottom right?"

"Yes," Neville said, and he looked a little shocked that Harry had spoken to him.

"I've been told that your parents and mine were friends," Harry said. Neville just nodded. Harry smiled at him and then stiffened.

Draco waited for Harry to turn around, but he didn't.

"Is there any latent Guides in our year?" Harry asked.

"Latent? I don't know, but I know there is one who is online," Neville said.

"Just that git Malfoy," the Weasley said. Weasley looked and pointed at Draco. Harry turned around, and his whole body went weird. Draco swallowed in slight fear. Jack had been giving Harry a lot of training over the weeks since the ICW had inserted themselves into British affairs. Harry was less unsure of himself and more like a Sentinel. Draco didn't miss the other Harry at all because Draco knew that it wasn't what Harry should be.

Harry took a step toward Draco and Draco couldn't help but take that step backwards. It continued until Draco was plastered against the wall. Harry rushed forward and pressed his forehead to Draco's.

"Guide," Harry said loud enough for the whole car to hear.

"Sentinel," Draco said choking on the word as he pushed out the feeling of the bond onto everyone around them. They were all going to think that they were bonding right then and there instead of the fact that they had already bonded.

"Merlin's Beard," Jack said, and then Draco barely heard the man trying to clear the car. No one was wanting to leave.

"What's going on?" the Weasley asked.

Draco heard the growl from Harry before he realised that someone was moving toward them.

"Come away from him, Harry," Weasley said.

Draco felt Weasley touch the back of Harry and then Harry was moving. Weasley screamed, and Harry was gone from Draco. Draco forced his eyes open to see that Harry had taken Weasley all the way back toward the other end of the car. Weasley was pressed into the wall and was looking as scared as Draco had ever seen anyone be. Jack stepped up and pulled Harry off of him. Harry tried to fight with Jack, but a chuff to the back of his head stopped that.

"Are you utterly stupid?" Aurora asked Weasley.

"He was getting close to Malfoy!" Weasley yelled.

"Draco Malfoy is Harry's Guide!" Aurora yelled. She looked utterly pissed and very beautiful to Draco.

"How could Harry bond to such a dark wizard?" Weasley asked.

"Do you not understand how Sentinels and Guides work?" the Muggle-born girl asked. Weasley looked at her like he wanted to yell at her. "No Guide has ever gone dark, as you put it. They are bastions of light and pure goodness. If a latent Guide or Sentinel starts to do dark things they go dormant."

"How do you know that?" Weasley sneered.

"Because I am a latent Guide."

"Oh, cool. I'm a latent Sentinel," Neville said.

Draco knew that because the Longbottom family had been worried that he would come online due to the fact that Draco was enamoured with him. Draco just liked the way that he felt. All latent Sentinels felt like that.

"You are just going to let them bond?" Weasley asked.

"It's already done. If we broke it now, it would possibly kill them both." Aurora sounded really upset.

"Harry, why don't you find a room and take your new Guide with you?" Jack asked.

Harry pulled himself out of Jack's hold and turned to face Draco again. Draco held out his hand, and when Harry took it, they started back.

"Longbottom, come along, bring your new friend as well," Draco called out before the door between cars shut. Draco pulled Harry along until he found the room that Blaise was still sitting in. Blaise looked up at Harry in shock but said nothing as Draco prodded him into the seat across from Blaise before wedging himself between Harry and the outer wall of the car. Just seconds later, Neville and the Muggle-born girl entered the room as well. Neville shut the door and looked at the people inside.

"Hermione Granger," the Muggle-born said as she offered her hand to Blaise.

"Blaise Zabini." Blaise turned back to Draco. "I felt that you know."

"Blaise is a sensitive. His whole family always has been."

"So you felt them bond?" Hermione asked.

"No. I felt them act like they bonded," Blaise pointed out with a glare at Draco.

"The ICW felt it was best for Harry's image if it wasn't believed that the night he came online, he called for me. He sent his Spirit Animal for help, and it drew father and me to him. We are the ones who rescued him, but the ICW took the fall for that so that it would help Harry's image. You can't tell anyone, ever."

Blaise drew his wand and said the secret spell out loud. Hermione and Neville repeated the words and touched Blaise's wand.

"Dumbledore isn't going to like that at all," Neville pointed out.

"Dumbledore doesn't have a say in it," Draco said.

"Ron's enough of a gossip that before we get to Hogwarts, it going to be known that the two f you bonded," Neville said.

"How did you know?" Hermione asked looking at Blaise.

"I've been around another Sentinel Guide pairing that has bonded. It was damned close, and no one else will probably know the difference, but when Draco says that I am sensitive, I mean that. My mother got ahold of the ranking pair in London when I felt Potter come online. I knew that he was in distress, but I didn't know where the Sentinel was."

"That's pretty cool," Hermione said.

"You say that because you don't have to sleep under protection spells to stop yourself from being woke up for all the feelings of all close by Guides. I feel Guides more than Sentinels, but the emotions of a Sentinel can affect me."

"Yeah, it's good you didn't follow me. Ron Weasley tried to pull Harry away from me after we fake bonded. Harry put him against a wall."

"There hasn't been a Weasley Sentinel or Guide since the whole blood feud between the Malfoys and Weasleys started," Blaise said.

"Really?" Draco asked.

"Oh, yes. Mother makes it her passion to know that kind of thing. She's going to be put out that she missed your bonding. As soon as it was common knowledge that Potter had been pulled from where he had been staying she knew that he was the one who I felt come online. I cried for an hour."

"Sorry," Harry said.

"Don't worry about it. I felt how you were feeling at that time."

Draco saw the look of pain on Blaise's face, and Draco made a note in his mind to ask Blaise about that. About what Harry was feeling because the Sentinel had blocked it entirely out.

"What spells do you know already?" Hermione asked looking at Neville, Harry, Draco, and Blaise with a look of pure want in her eyes.

"I don't know a lot because I don't have a lot of magic," Neville said.

"That's pure horseshite," Blaise said. He held out his hand for the wand. Neville looked at Draco before handing it over. "This is an old wand."

"It was my father's," Neville said. He shrugged. "Gran wanted me to use it."

"I thought the wand chooses the wizard, not the grandma chooses who gets her son's wand?" Harry asked.

"Yes. Why is she making you carry it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, we shall have to take care of that as soon as possible," Blaise said as he pulled out a notebook. He started to write something down in it. "As to spells, Draco and I know loads, but most of them are simple and have to do with grooming. Our parents used them on us a lot as children, so we watched and learned them. Don't know many for girls, except the few that mother uses a lot."

The topics turned to many other things that Draco had never thought about telling Harry. Harry didn't ask a lot of questions, but Hermione did. It was an education for Draco as well because he hadn't realized what Muggle-borns were told about the Wizarding World and what they were not. For Harry, he had known nothing about the world at all while Hermione had known about it for a while and had learned everything that she could from books. Draco understood his father's mindset when he had been younger about why he didn't like Muggle-borns, but if Hermione knew little and she had read as much as she had, it was no wonder Muggle-borns tried to change things.

"You know what," Draco said after everyone was changed into their robes for school as they neared it. A snack had been eaten halfway through the trip with Draco sharing his with everyone while Harry got sweets off the trolly for everyone. Draco knew that he would have to curtail that habit of Harry's. Harry had money, and he had a lot of it but he liked to buy things for people, and it wasn't always a good thing. Snacks off the trolly were one thing, but small things could become big ones.

"What?" Harry asked when Draco trailed off.

"Sorry I got distracted. We need to figure out who the Muggle-borns are in our grade and make sure to teach them all about the customs and traditions of the Wizarding World. We can make it a sharing thing, and they can teach us about their culture as well. Would you be willing, Hermione?"

"I would. I tried to find books on that kind of thing but Flourish, and Blotts didn't really have them."

"It is most oral tradition, and Half-bloods and Pure-bloods learn it while living at home. We are taught by our parents for reading, writing, and arithmetic. Or if we have just a single parent then our nannies teach us," Blaise said.

"Both of my parents work, but I went to a Muggle primary school."

"So did I. I didn't learn anything other than cleaning and cooking at home."

"Those are good things to know," Hermione said with a smile.

"Not when you are the only one doing both," Draco said.

"Oh." Hermione deflated.

"I'll tell you about it," Neville said with a reassuring smile at Harry. Harry nodded his head.

Draco knew that Harry didn't like talking about it and after talking to the Ministry, the ICW, and a Mind Healer about it all, he was just done talking about it.

"We are here," Blaise said.

Draco looked out the train as they pulled into Hogsmeade. Draco knew what to expect because everyone had explained it to Harry and therefore Draco as well, but Draco didn't know what to expect once they were inside of the castle. It was the sorting that had Draco worried.

The trip across the lake was easy, and Draco loved seeing Harry's reaction to seeing the school for the first time. Harry and Draco had a boat alone while Neville, Hermione, and Blaise were alone in another. Weasley tried to get into the boat with Harry and Draco, but Jack and Aurora stopped that. The two had ridden on the train with them the entire way. Draco was shocked about that, but Jack had told them that they would be training Harry on the weekends, but he hadn't realised that it meant that they were going to be staying inside of the castle.

Upon entering the castle, Draco stopped when he saw that it wasn't Professor McGonagall standing there like his father said that it would be. It was Professor Sprout.

"Welcome, welcome. The welcome feast will be starting as soon as we get you sorted into Houses. The sorting is important because your House will become your family."

Draco tuned the Professor out as he knew everything that she was going to be saying. He instead focused on the feel of the room on the other side. There were many students who were very excited. Draco could feel their mood affecting him. Draco was too focused on the mood temperature of the room, and he screamed when many of the people behind him got scared by something. He spun around on his heel and looked at the Hogwarts ghosts who were fighting.

"The Sorting Ceremony is about to start," Professor Sprout said, and Draco turned back to look at her. She was all smiles when she looked at the students, but when she saw a ghost, she frowned. "Form a line and follow me."

The First Years all filed in and it seemed that no one wanted to be at the front, but Harry pushed forward to the front, so Draco followed, behind him Hermione, Neville, and Blaise all came as well. Draco saw the Sorting Hat sitting on the stool. It started to sing its welcome song.

"When I call your name, you will put on the Sorting Hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," Sprout said, and it drew Draco's attention from the Hat to her. Behind her, the rest of the professors were sitting and watching. Draco saw Professor McGonagall where the Headmaster would be sitting. Had something already been done and Dumbledore removed?

"Abbott, Hannah," Spout called out.

Draco watched as she rushed forward to sit on the stool. Professor Sprout placed the hat on her head, and the whole room waited with anticipation, but the Hat did nothing. Professor Sprout looked at Headmistress McGonagall with a frown on her face.

"Is there something wrong?" Headmistress McGonagall asked.

"Oh, yes Headmistress. In most cases I allowed you to choose the order that I sort students, however when we have an online bonded pair of Sentinels and Guides in the school, I am to resort them first or in this case sort them first as they are First Years," the Sorting Hat said.

Draco looked at Harry in shock. Draco didn't know that.

"I see and who is this bonded pair?"

"Young Lords Potter and Malfoy," the Sorting Hat said.

The whole room erupted into chatter, and it was only the clearing of Headmistress McGonagall's throat that stopped the chatter. The look on her face said that she was wasn't shocked but was playing a role. One Draco was pretty sure that she and the Hat had cooked up.

"Well then, Harry Potter, step forward please."

Draco frowned because this wasn't the way it was supposed to go. Draco was supposed to go first and then Harry was to beg to be put in Draco's House. There was nothing in the charter that said that Sentinels and Guides had to be sorted into the same house. Draco knew that he was going to Slytherin, but if Harry were sorted first, Draco would have no choice but to go into Gryffindor. There was no chance that going first that wasn't where the Hat was going to place Harry.

The Hat was silent for a long time, and Harry's eyes were shut, there was nothing moving between them in the bond and that worried Draco.

"Slytherin!" the Hat finally called out.

There was dead silence in the room. Draco covered it by stepping up to the Hat and pulling it off of Harry before he sat down on the stool. Harry stayed right there beside Draco while the Hat barely even settled before it called out the exact same House. Draco looked at Neville who was walking up to them. It seemed that the students were dictating who was being sorted and when because Professor Sprout was just staring in shock.

Neville sat down when Draco got up, and Harry set the Hat down on his head. Just like with Harry it took forever, and by then Professor Sprout was trying to shoo Harry and Draco down, but just as Draco took a step, the Hat was declaring Neville's House.

"Slytherin!" The Hat called out.

Harry was smirking as he turned to wait for Professor Sprout to take the Hat off of Neville's head. Blaise was walking up next, and Professor Sprout just set the Hat down on his head. The call of Slytherin wasn't a shock. Hermione had a determined look on her face as she stepped up and sat on the stool as soon as Blaise cleared it. Neville and Blaise waited on her while Draco led Harry over to the Slytherin table. Draco knew many of the people there as he had played with them when they had been younger.

"Slytherin!" the Hat called out again for the fifth time in a row.

Draco knew that there was going to be so many letters sent out to parents and Draco was pretty damned sure that Neville's grandmother was not going to be pleased at all. No Longbottom had ever been sorted into any House other than Gryffindor, much like the Potters. Neville and Blaise took ahold of Hermione's arms, and they walked as a threesome toward the Slytherin table. A Muggle-born in Slytherin was just begging for issues but when Blaise walked her around and slipped her into the spot between Harry and Draco it cemented that the two of them were going to protect her.

Hermione would have less to fear once it was well known that she was latent, Neville as well. Though Neville was going to get a lot of respect because every single Slytherin knew that he had to ask to follow Harry into Slytherin.

The rest of the Sorting was uneventful, and the rest of the students let Professor Sprout call them up in alphabetical order. When the Hat was placed on Weasley's head though, it sat there for a long time, and Draco swore that Weasley's head was going to explode as he concentrated. The look of utter unhappiness on Weasley's face was precious to Draco as the Hat called out Gryffindor.

Weasley tromped over to the Gryffindor table. The Hat was cleared away, and Professor Sprout took a seat at the table while Headmistress McGonagall stood up again.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I know that returning students and new students alike expect to have Albus Dumbledore here as headmaster, but something things have changed. Albus Dumbledore retired as of two weeks ago. I will be taking over as Headmistress for the next year. As we were unable to find a replacement teacher as of yet for Transfiguration and as the Head of Gryffindor, I will still be doing that. Professor Sprout has taken over as Deputy Headmistress so please come to either one of us if you have an issue. I will detail the rest after you all eat so, please tuck in!"

Headmistress McGonagall sat down, and Draco looked down at the table as the food started to appear. There was a pitcher of water in front of Harry whereas no one else at the table had it. Harry grinned and picked up the water to fill his glass. He passed it to Draco next who handed it to Neville when the boy held out his hands. Hermione was last for it, and as soon as she set it down, it started to refill.

Draco felt a sharp pain radiate inside of his head, and he looked at Harry who was staring at one of the Professors. Draco recognised him as Professor Quirrell, and Quirrell was talking to Professor Snape.

"Harry?" Draco asked but instead of answering Harry stood up. Draco felt the utter fear that filled Harry before he took off at a run at Professor Quirrell. Draco couldn't stop him, and he moved so fast that no one else did. He jumped up, his body allowing him feats that most Wizards were not capable of at his age and landed on the table. Professor Quirrell screamed and nearly fainted as the sound of a growl echoed around the room. Draco looked for Jack to find him running from where he had been seated at the end of the Slytherin table.

Professor Snape jumped back as Harry ripped the turban that Quirrell had been wearing off of his head, and the whole room started to run backwards from Quirrell. The kids left the ends of the table near where Quirrell was, and the older students began to pull the rest of the kids back.

"Bloody hell," Professor McGonagall said.

"You!" Quirrell said, but Draco wasn't sure it was him. Quirrell turned around, and Draco saw that there was a face there. It was like something was under the professor's skin, and it could talk.

Jack grabbed Harry around the waist but not before Harry reached out and touched the back of Quirrell's head. Quirrell screamed at the same time that the thing inside of him did as well. Draco watched as the body started to disintegrate and turn to ash in front of all of their faces.

There was silence for a minute, and then something rose from the ashes, literally, and the apparition screamed and rushed at Harry. Jack pulled Harry into his body and sheltered him as it moved through the both of them.

"What the hell was that," one of the students at the Ravenclaw table asked.

"That was Tom Riddle," Jack said as he cradled Harry close until Aurora and Draco could reach him. Harry was passed out in Jack's arms. "Headmistress McGonagall, if you would be kind and call the DMLE here. We need those ashes contained, and we need to track exactly where Quirrell has been since he left school last year. That was Riddle possessing Quirrell's body."

"Of course, everyone else please eat as quickly as possible. We will start school the day after tomorrow instead of tomorrow as I feel that we will need the time."

"Headmistress, why don't we have the students take their meal in the halls?" Professor Snape asked.

"Yes, yes. A wonderful idea, Severus. Hogwarts Elves to me!" Headmistress McGonagall called out. Draco watched as the House Elves for the school appeared, one was close to the Headmistress, and she was whispering in his ear. "Head Boys and Girls, Prefects, please gather up your students and get them to the halls. Mister Malfoy you are more than welcome to stay where you are until your Sentinel wakes up."

"We are staying too," Hermione said.

"I have a feeling that my new Snakes are going to be a unified front to others," Professor Snape said.

"I well agree. Fine. You may stay but keep silent."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Draco took Harry's weight from Jack and settled down to hold his Sentinel until he woke up. Draco knew that there were protections on Harry, blood-based spells that his mother had placed on him. The Goblins had found them while working on Harry and making sure that he okay after years of abuse and no medical help after finding him in the remnants of the house he and his parents had been in when the Dark Lord had attacked.

"Professor Snape, can you get word to my father? He will get word to Lord Black while he's in the care of medical professionals after being in Azkaban for ten years."

"I wondered what happened to him after his day in court and being exonerated. I have heard that your mother is spearheading the effort to find Peter Pettigrew after word came out that he's probably alive."

"Yes. Lord Black shared that the whole of them were unregistered Animagus and that Pettigrew can change into a rat." Draco stopped talking as Harry started to move a little in his arms.

"I will go to my rooms and floo your father directly, and I will make sure that the castle has four rooms ready in the Sentinel and Guide areas of the Slytherin area." Professor Snape looked like he wanted to stay but had other duties that were needing to be done as well. He looked very confliced.

"Four?" Blaise asked.

"Mister Longbottom and Miss Granger are very close to coming online due to being around the two of you, and I already had a single room set up for Mister Zabini. He needs the help of shielded rooms to sleep. I will make sure that there is a common room shared between the four rooms. I take care of my students. No matter their family legacy."

"Thank you, Severus," Headmistress McGonagall said before she started away. The other teachers were working on containing the ashes as well as make sure no students were left. The food was disappearing as well as the tables slowly.

Harry's eyes opened up and looked at Draco.

"What happened?"

"You attacked a Professor, and I think he died."

"He was dead long ago," Jack said.

Draco looked up at Jack who was looking where the ashes had been. "What do you mean?"

"He was head from the moment that he allowed Riddle to take him over. Riddle was never going to leave him alive. I am unsure if Harry's touch killed him or it was Riddle himself leaving his body. We need a full deconstruction of the scene to find that out for a fact. Harry, I know that you are worked up, but you need to eat. I think that sleep will be hard for you both."

"Sentinel and Guide Slater, please come with me and make sure the rooms will be fine for the five of them?" Professor Snape asked.

"I will gladly. I would prefer it if Jack stayed here. I think that Harry will feel better," Aurora said.

Draco was glad that one of them was staying.

"And here I thought that Albus not being here was going to be the big talk of the students and the news. There is no way to stop word of this from getting out," Headmistress McGonagall said.

"I wouldn't want it to," Jack said. He watched his wife leave the room before he turned back to look at the Headmistress. "Riddle has survived in some way, and I plan to figure out how because that was something that should be impossible given that he died from the Killing Curse."

Draco knew that many in the ICW had studied the Dark Lord and his rise and fall, but the fact that he had made it inside of the school was appalling. Draco tucked his head into Harry's neck and felt his Sentinel's arms come around him.

# September 2, 1991

Dawn for Draco came way too early, even with Harry being young and his body and magic rushing to catch up with things, he still woke up at dawn every single morning. The rooms that the Slytherin area of the castle made for them was perfect. Hermione's room was in the centre along with Blaise's while Harry and Draco had one room on the end and Neville the other. Harry and Draco's room was massive and so wasn't Blaise's while Neville and Hermione were literally half the size. Draco wondered if the magic of Hogwarts thought that they were going to be a thing and therefore made it easier in the long run for them to move in together.

Harry was sitting in the window that looked out into the lake, and even though it was dark, he was staring out into the inky blackness.

"What's wrong?"

"There has been something nagging at the back of my mind since the moment that I got onto the train," Harry said.

"Okay."

"I can't place it, and I need to. I feel the utter need to figure out what is bothering me."

"We have the day. Classes won't start until tomorrow, and the Great Hall will probably be back to rights this morning. Let's go get breakfast and then we can wander around."

"Sounds good to me."

There were private showers for the lot of them. Harry would never let Draco shower where anyone else could even get a small peek at him, so Draco assumed that the castle did private bathrooms for all of them. The rooms themselves were magically shielded well, and Draco could feel Professor Snape's magic in them. He had added a great deal of wards to all four of the rooms.

Harry was grinning at Draco as he shoved Draco into the shower first.

"So how does the castle feel to you?" Draco asked, yelling over the water.

"It's a lot different than the Manor and feels better in my mind than the Ministry did."

Draco snorted because the Ministry was a mass of chaos and even Draco trying his hardest to protect Harry, Harry felt way too much in the magical press of the Ministry. Draco had learned quickly that Harry felt the hum of magic just like Draco did.

Harry showered quickly, he still wasn't fully used to the feel of water on his skin after being stuck in the rain like he had. Draco wasn't even sure if Harry would ever be able to play in the rain or like showers at all. The Great Hall was empty except for a few of the professors, who tried not to look at Harry. When Draco and Harry were almost done eating, Jack and Aurora joined them.

"There is a group of War Mages that are going to track Quirrell's last moves around, and it seems that he was in Albania last, so they are going to start there. There is another team that is trying to track Riddle." Jack was loading his plate with eggs and bacon while Aurora was eating oatmeal with berries in it.

"How did that go?" Harry asked.

"Your Minister is rather...ostrich like. He doesn't want to believe that Riddle is back at all while your Head of the DMLE is very accepting of what I felt. I met Riddle once after he had become Voldemort."

Draco shivered at the name. Harry called him that as well while in Draco's mind he would rather call him the Dark Lord. He-who-must-not-be-named was stupid, but Voldemort still scared Draco.

"We knew what he feels like," Aurora said. She grabbed a piece of bacon from Jack's plate and grinned at him when he playfully growled. "There is no mistaking that is who it was."

"What could make him be like that?" Harry asked.

"Dark deeds and one of them is very dark indeed."

"Like the Horcrux that is inside of me?" Harry asked.

The clatter of silverware on bowls and plates had Draco looking up. He knew in a roundabout way what a Horcrux was, but he had never actually heard of anyone doing it. That Harry thought he had one inside of him. Draco started to put together what he knew of them and what he knew of the night that the Dark Lord had gone to kill the Potter's.

"Does he?" Draco asked.

"The Goblins found it and are working on a plan to get it out of him. You were asleep, Harry Potter."

"I was not as asleep as the Goblins thought. I did some looking into them in the Malfoy library. If I have one inside of me and he's wandering around, he made more than one."

"Riddle was obsessed with the number seven. I wouldn't be shocked if he made seven. Dumbledore has been asked about the Horcruxes, and he was shocked but lying when he said that he didn't know that Riddle was making them. I wonder at what Wizarding Britain has become if Albus Dumbledore can think that Sentinels can't see what someone is lying, even if they are trying to cover it up with magic."

"So there are more out there?"

"Yes and we can keep killing the spectral form that he's in and wait for a new one to pop up or we can destroy the Horcruxes that are left and then go hunting. There will be a large group of researchers coming to London to start the Horcrux hunt."

"How come no one figured this out before?" Draco asked.

"I theorised that it's taken Riddle thing long to get as powerful as he currently is. It's no wonder really that no one has noticed. We are unsure how long he was in Quirrell."

Draco jumped when a cat jumped up onto the table. Draco looked into its eyes, and he felt like he was in trouble for things that he had never been caught for.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"It's a cat," Draco said.

"No, it's an Animagus," Aurora said.

"I felt that, on the train," Harry said and he reached out to the cat to pet it. The cat wandered close to him and let him pet her for a moment before jumping off of the table.

Draco swallowed when Headmistress McGonagall stood up and was looking at Harry.

"What do you mean that you felt that on the train?" Headmistress McGonagall asked.

"I felt that. It was when I was seeing who was doing the yelling on the train. When we were in the car with Ron Weasley."

Draco laughed to himself because he hadn't even asked the name of the Weasley boy. Aurora made a sound and Draco looked at her.

"Does the Weasley boy have a pet that he declared?" Aurora asked.

"A rat," Headmistress McGonagall said.

"A rat? Like what Pettigrew can turn into?" Harry asked.

Draco looked up at McGonagall and frowned shrewdly at Harry before she looked at Jack.

"The pet has been in the Weasley family for a while. I've never thought about it, but it's just a plain rat, not a magical one at all. It should be long dead. He is also missing a digit on his paw that matches the finger that was found to be from Pettigrew."

"Out of the mouths of babes," Aurora said, but she shovelled the last of her room into her mouth and stood up. She pressed a hand to Jack's shoulder to force him to sit down. "Don't get up dear. You don't have a chance of catching a rat."

Jack laughed but nodded.

"I'll stay here with the boys. You two go and catch yourselves a rat."

Draco looked at Harry and frowned.

"Don't frown at me like that," Harry said.

"We are never going to have a normal life, are we? Before classes even started, you figured out that we had a possessed teacher and now you have figured out that Hogwarts has had a Death Eater hiding in its midst for years and never knew it."

Harry shrugged but looked away from Draco. Draco could feel the hurt emanating from Harry not at Draco's words but at the truth of it all. There was little hope that they would ever have a normal life. People already expected a lot from Harry and they would have to work twice as hard to prove that Draco hadn't turned Harry dark. Draco scooted closer to Harry and wrapped an arm around Harry's waist to hold him tight. Jack said nothing but kept on eating while Draco and Harry were silent.

The three of them stayed right where they were, long after they were done eating. Jack sipped at coffee while Draco tried to get Harry to sip at a cup of tea. Other students started to file in slowly, many giving Harry and Draco a wide berth on their way to the tables. Neville, Hermione, and Blaise sat down all around them and started to make them talk.

Just after the new three were done eating, a second year from Ravenclaw came running in.

"There are Aurors here!"

"Let's go," Draco said, and he tugged Harry up after him. Hermione and Neville gave them a weird look but when Draco waved for them to follow they did. Blaise grabbed a slice of toast and took a bite as he got up to follow them. There was a huge mass of students in the hall that led to the staircase that was the primary method of moving between floors in the castle.

There were five Aurors, Headmistress McGonagall, and Aurora standing there with a man in shackles standing between them. Draco recognised him from the pictures he had seen of Harry's parents with their three best friends. Draco felt Harry grabbing at him, and Draco moved to stand to where Harry could wrap his arms around him.

"Who is that?" "How did he get into the castle?" There were whispers all around them. Various forms of those two questions. Draco kept his mouth shut.

"I've seen him before," Hermione said.

"That's...Harry's parents’ friend," Neville said. That got everyone's attention on them.

"Who Neville?" someone asked.

"The who supposed died that Sirius Black went to jail for. That's Peter Pettigrew. The Aurors have been hunting for him."

"He was Weasley's rat," someone said.

"Percy had him since he came to Hogwarts," another yelled from the back of the group.

Draco watched as Pettigrew was led down the stairs. When Pettigrew saw Harry behind Draco, he started to lunge at him.

"Unnatural creature! My Lord should have ended you that night! Sentinels and Guides are abominations against magic!" Pettigrew screamed before someone silenced him. The Aurors were not gentle as they hauled him out the doors.

"Mister Potter," McGonagall said as she came down the stairs. "If you wouldn't mind heading up to my office. There are two people who would like dearly to talk to you." She looked at the four that were with Harry. "If you would like them to come, they can. Messers Weasley, please go with the Aurors. They are going to take you to St. Mungo's where you will be checked to make sure that Mister Pettigrew didn't do anything to the lot of you in the years that he was in your house. Your parents are going to meet you there with your sister."

"Thanks, Headmistress," Percy Weasley said before he looked around for his two younger brothers. Ron was with Aurora coming down the stairs, and she passed him off to his brothers before going toward where the Aurors had gone.

"I have found a replacement Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher as well as a Transfiguration one however they will not be able to start until next week. So in that time Jack and Aurora Slater have agreed to teach those classes since they will be here anyway. Now those of you who have not eaten breakfast, please do so. Those that have amuse yourself elsewhere." Headmistress McGonagall waved her hands around and the kids all started to leave.

Draco tugged Harry along with him as they started up to the floor that Draco knew the office was on. He stopped when they got to the too, and he looked at Hermione.

"Yes, I know where the office is," Hermione said with a grin. Draco smiled back at her. The witch had read over Hogwarts, A History several times before school started and had been reading it the night before as well. Draco was not shocked that she knew. Draco waved the way forward, and Hermione smirked and went passed him.

The door to the Headmistress's office opened up, and they all five walked up the steps that led up into the main office. There was a painting on the door, and a very shrewd-looking man looked down at them.

"As Messers Potter, Malfoy, Zabini, and Longbottom and Miss Granger, welcome. I am Tobias. The Headmistress sent work that I was to expect you and allow you inside." The door swung open, and all five of them walked in. There was a desk in the corner that when seated McGonagall could look outside to into the office proper. There was also a considerable area with two two-seater couches and five armchairs. Harry prodded Draco over onto one of the couches, and they sat. Hermione sat in a chair, and Neville sat beside her while Blaise looked at the books.

Draco heard the flare of the floo before he looked over and saw that two men were getting out of it. The second man Draco had only seen in pictures, but Remus Lupin looked a great deal different than he had then. He was in a nice robe, and what Draco could see of the clothes underneath, those were very expensive as well.

The Potter will had been finally read just three days before, and there was a substantial amount of money left to Remus and to Pettigrew however given what Pettigrew had done the courts had denied that and that money went to Remus as well. No money had been left with Sirius, but then he had plenty of money on his own but items were left as well as the guardianship of Harry. Given the fact that Draco and Harry were bound together, Draco's parents had opened up their home to Sirius Black to live, and they were going to raise Harry and Draco as a large family unit.

"Merlin, Padfoot, he looks so much like James," Remus said, and it drew the attention of the others in the room. Harry looked up at the both of them. Draco's mother had not wanted Harry to meet Sirius until he was fed up a little and on an even keel mentally so that neither of them was damaged from it.

Harry was up and running at the two men, nearly taking them down in his rush to hug them. Draco stood up as well and waved Hermione, Blaise, and Neville back. Remus pulled out of the hug from Harry first and held his hand out to Draco.

"Narcissa and Lucius have already told us everything, Draco. I'm glad that you were there for Harry when he came online. I look forward to getting to know you more."

"We have a few hours here but the both of us will be back," Sirius said as he finally pulled out of the hug from Harry.

"How will you be back?" Neville asked.

"Well Moony is very good at Defence, and I was no slouch when it came to Transfiguration. I've been cleared by Mind Healers, and they think a low-stress job will help me get used to being free from Azkaban. I still have to see one and talk to him a great deal but Headmistress McGonagall needs two professors, and we happen to be here." Sirius looked genuinely excited, and Draco was happy that both of the men would get to know Harry and Draco a lot better over the coming year. Draco just really hoped that the surprises were done for the year.

# The End

**Author's Note:**

> I write fanfiction for fun. It's a hobby and a stress relief. I refuse to stress over my writing. What you see is what you get. Errors, plot holes, and all. Thank you for reading my story! 
> 
> I can be found on MeWe (a FB replacement that's better) [here](https://mewe.com/i/beccaqueen1), join me there and we can discuss my fics and whatnot. My writing page for the moment is kind of dead in the water on a FB front as links are being banned for content. 
> 
> The Every Fandom Reverse Bang sign-ups are open! Please check it out [here](https://everyfandombangs.wordpress.com/).


End file.
